Smithtown Nursing Home Cited for Deficiencies by NYS Department of Health

Saint Catherine of Siena Nursing and Rehabilitation Care Center, located in Smithtown, NY, was cited for deficiencies in a Department of Health survey dated February 12, 2012. Two areas in particular for which the facility received substandard ratings involved medication errors and maintenance.

According to federal regulations, a facility must ensure that it maintains a medication error rate of below five percent. In the case of Saint Catherine of Siena, a sampling of residents found medication error rates at 7.7%. On several occasions, medications were not administered in doses as ordered by physicians; in others, the wrong medication was provided. Although no actual harm resulted in these instances, the DOH noted that this type of behavior has the potential to result in more than minimal harm. Fortunately such harm was avoided here.

In the same vein as the deficiency noted above, the facility was also cited for failing to properly label drugs and biologicals. The facility failed to remove open and expired medications from residents’ rooms. Not only does this violate federal regulatory standards, but it also violates the facility’s own policies and procedures, which state: “All multi dose vials must be dated and initialed when opened and must be discarded after 28 days.” Stricter adherence by the staff to both the facility’s standards, and to those set forth in the CFR, could deter both the maintaining of expired medications and lower the medication error rates. Perhaps the DOH survey will aid in correcting these mistakes.

To read the entire DOH write up on Saint Catherine of Siena Nursing and Rehab Center, go here.